Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Baseball Postseason

The baseball post-season is upon us and we only have 1 surprise team this year. Tampa is the only team that wasn't in the conversation in April when the season started. The magical ride of the Rays is without a doubt the story of the season. Tampa has given hope to all the low budget teams in baseball. Now can they win the World Series...unlikely in my mind.

Here are my picks for the Divisional Series

American League

White Sox over the Rays. I like the experience the Pale Hose bring to the post-season. I think the Rays will be nervous. Nerves in a 5 game series are deadly.

Angels dump the Red Sox. Sorry no repeat for Boston. The Angels are the class of the American League. They have their pitching set up and are healthy. The Red Sox are walking wounded with 3 key players hurting. Sluggers Mike Lowell and J.D. Drew are not at full speed and Pitcher Josh Beckett will not be able to pitch until game 3 of the series. Boston would like to have had their stud hurler for at least 2 starts. He pulled a muscle during a side session over the weekend and had to be pushed back. This is not good news for Boston. Even with a healthy line-up I like the Angels...they are probably the best team in baseball!

National League

Phillies over the Brewers. I think the biggest difference between these 2 teams is the Phils great bullpen. If the starters falter in this series on either side...which is likely considering the hitters on both the squads...the Phils really have a huge advantage in the pen. Heck Brewers manager Dale Sveum is talking about changing closers. Salmon Torres has struggled with an 8+ ERA the past month or so. The Phils also get a break not having to face C.C. Sabathia in game 1. He was needed to pitch on Sunday to help the Brewers make the post-season. Catch all the games on ESPN 1440.

Cubs trip the Dodgers. This could be a very low scoring series with both teams having strong starting pitching staffs. I like the Cubs just because they are the more experienced team. The Dodgers made the post-season only because they had the luck to play in the NL West. L-A comes in worst record with just 84 wins with half their wins against divisional opponents.

Lastly...how about Al Davis. He accuses fired Head Coach Lane Kiffin of embarrassing the team. You've got to be kidding me. If anything Al Davis is the embarrassment. He didn't have the guts to fire Kiffin face to face...he phoned him....at least it wasn't by text message! Crazy Al hired Kiffin 2 years ago. EVERYONE thought he was nuts to tab the 30 year old who was an assistant at USC with NO head coaching experience. Kiffin wasn't ready to run the team and Davis didn't give him any help in building a winning program. Who would want to work for this guy. I suspect until Davis is out of the picture in Oakland the team will remain dysfunctional.